outline font

noun

1.

(computing) a font format that makes use of fillable geometric outlines of letters and symbols, allowing fonts to be scaled up or down while still retaining their intended shape Also called vector font Compare bitmap font

text (Or "vector font") A font defined as a set of lines and curves as opposed to a bitmap font. An outline font (e.g. PostScript, TrueType, RISC OS) can be scaled to any size and otherwise transformed more easily than a bitmap font, and with more attractive results, though this requires a lot of numerical processing. The result of transforming a character in an outline font in a particular way is often saved as a bitmap in a font cache to avoid repeating the calculations if that character is to be drawn again. (1995-03-16)